A Rural Blog that provides views & insights from a Conservative Georgia Democrat

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Forget About Being Nice: Democrats Need To Tap The Anger Vein In Voters

Midterms are all about anger....and in some instances rage. Polls never really show the exact extent of this. There’s no identifiable or authoritative Anger Poll – a "how angry are you" poll. Personally, I’d like to see an anger poll. Not another level of
dissatisfaction with Congress poll or how much voters disapproves of
President Obama poll. And even though it’s something like news for the
horse race gamblers, some of us get unbelievable headaches from survey
after survey measuring how much half the public still detests the Affordable Care Act or "Obamacare" a it called.

But, an anger poll could go beyond the political divisions and reveal
the root cause of electoral anxieties we see in polls and hear on the
street. The deciding factor in this upcoming midterm elections isn’t really about which party base is the most mobilized, but it’s
more about how angry or anxious certain blocks of voters are.

This is problematic for both Democratic and Republican parties.
However, at this stage, it’s much more problematic for Democrats as the
left has proven itself incapable of using voter anger as a valuable
resource simply because they are too nice. While progressives are writing diatribes and pity party
scripts, conservatives are coming up with creative twists on anger and that strategy works everytime. Defensively, Democrats are earnestly rolling out a wave of populist
themes designed to win the hearts and minds of lost base voters. From the minimum wage to equal pay, the issues seem solid on paper
and in polling headlines bearing upbeat assessments of a Democratic
Party comeback in this year’s highly critical midterm election.

Issues such as the minimum wage increase appeal to non-white voters at a much higher rate. But for any democrat to do well this november and win, he or she will have to go after the white vote. For all the talk about democrats needing to turnout their base, which will not be on the level of that of 2008 or 2012, white voters..those who are middle of the road, bluecollar will be the deciding bloc for democrats this year. If the Democratic party, is to thrive for instance like here in Georgia, it
cannot simply accommodate itself to Republicans. The party needs to
seize control of the battle for new ideas, reinvigorate its grassroots
base, and develop new mechanisms for communicating its ideas to the
public.